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Columbia Will Not Seek Eminent Domain to Oust Tenants

By Sewell Chan July 12, 2007 5:28 pmJuly 12, 2007 5:28 pm

The proposed expansion of Columbia University facilities extends from 129th to 133rd Streets between Broadway and 12th Avenue and includes three properties on Broadway from 131st to 134th streets. See a detailed map.

Columbia University, which is seeking the city’s support for a major northward expansion of its Morningside Heights campus, announced today that it will not ask the state to use eminent domain to evict residents of 132 apartments in the 17-acre area of Harlem that it wants to move into.

The announcement suggests that the university is attempting to be conciliatory, as it signaled on Monday during a meeting of the City Planning Commission. Nonetheless, the move only goes part of the way to addressing the concerns of opponents of the expansion plan, including Manhattan’s Community Board 9, which has proposed an alternative to Columbia’s proposal.

In a statement, Columbia said its executive vice president, Robert Kasdin, “did not remove the possibility of requesting that the state invoke eminent domain to assemble the few commercial properties that remain in the proposed 17-acre expansion area.” But in most cases, Columbia said, the university would seek to buy both residential and commercial property from the owners on mutually agreeable terms. The university already owns most of the properties in the 17-acre site.

Councilman Robert Jackson, the Manhattan Democrat who represents the area, was quoted in Columbia’s statement as saying:

No potential problem has been more threatening for the residents of West Harlem than the use of eminent domain. I am pleased today that Columbia University is exhibiting a level of respect and awareness by choosing not to seek the application of eminent domain against the 132 residents living the area of the proposed expansion. I look forward to continuing to work with the University and the community to address the myriad of other challenges associated with Columbia’s proposed expansion.

The 17-acre area includes four large blocks from West 129th to 133rd Streets, between Broadway and 12th Avenue, including the north side of 125th Street, and three properties east of Broadway, from West 131st to 134th Streets. The area is not densely populated, having a handful of low-rise residential buildings adjacent to commercial and light industrial buildings.

Columbia, which completed a draft environmental impact statement last month, has said it needs the expansion to remain competitive in science research. Today, it said that the research being conducted in the new buildings would include a study of “strokes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.”

Columbia University, which is seeking the city’s support for a major northward expansion of its Morningside Heights campus, announced today that it will not ask the state to use eminent domain to evict residents of 132 apartments in the 17-acre area of Harlem that it wants to move into.

From third paragraph of article:

In a statement, Columbia said its executive vice president, Robert Kasdin, “did NOT [emphasis mine — BH] remove the possibility of requesting that the state invoke eminent domain to assemble the few commercial properties that remain in the proposed 17-acre expansion area.”

In light of the statement that is quoted in the third paragraph, the statement in the first paragraph seems to be VERY craftily worded and, perhaps, misleading.

Thanks for including Columbia’s proposed site plan. Columbia has indeed actually added an additional street, which is good. Too bad they are apparently still using eminent domain (or the threat of eminent domain, which is the same thing, really) to clear out other businesses from thee area and to thereby diminish its true diversity.

My family is the largest private property owner in the proposed expansion area. For the past three years I have fought Columbia’s efforts at getting the state to unfairly and unethically condemn my property so that Columbia can build their much desired new campus.

During the entire process, the West Harlem community has been unanimous in its opposition to this naked attempt at abusing the state’s eminent domain powers.

i will not back down with a hammer atop my head. Nor will the community be fooled by this latest attempt by Columbia to “divide and conquer”. Their press release last week is not news at all nor is it really any concession whatsoever. They still refuse to allow the residential tenants to stay in their own homes. Likewise, they continue to threaten everyone with forced displacement.

Columbia needs to learn what every child learns – the need to share. We in west Harlem are more than willing to share with Columbia.

Perhaps the Columbia administration should go back to school for a clas in ethics.

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